Tris Vonna-Michell occupies the office and channels of DISPATCH to relay, perform and weave through a story that began with a quest for Henri Chopin.

Since 2003, Tris Vonna-Michell (b. Southend on Sea, UK, 1982) has been working on a series of inter-related stories which take form as performances and installations which function as chapters within an over-arching plot. In the minimal surroundings in which he performs, slide projections, texts and objects are interwoven as theatrical props for the various storylines which are put before the audience. The performing (often high-speed verbal monologues to a small audience group) is a combination of structure and script while remaining spontaneous and improvisational. Vonna-Michell has had solo exhibitions at several institutions in Europe, including the Witte de With in Rotterdam, the Braunschweig Kunstverin, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the Atelierfrankfurt in Frankfurt am Main. He has performed and participated in several group exhibitions including those at the Zentrum Paul Klee in Berne, at the Neue Alte Brücke in Frankfurt am Main and at the New Wight Gallery, UCLA in Los Angeles.

From the small confines of the DISPATCH BUREAU, a pinpoint or locus is traced along a multi-faceted plane of information. Strategies of diffusion and communication are elaborated as simple concepts of exhibition-making are dismissed. Could the most interesting performance exist without an audience? Can spaces be linked across geographical borders, through diverse channels, the same way ideas are spread? Dispatch offers a model for curatorial production: an office for receiving and originating exhibitions, projects, and concepts treated as time-sensitive transmissions.

Jeannie Hopper interviewed Tris Vonna-Michell and DISPATCH's Gabrielle Giattino on November 15, 2007, at DISPATCH.